Next Stage - Social Impact Services

Social good strategy to amplify your impact

Corporate Impact

Why Sustainability Matters for Every Charlotte Business

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We released the Social Good Report 2021: Profit & Purpose earlier this month and the feedback thus far has been super strong.

As we hope you have had a chance to read, we highlight the many different ways nonprofits can be “vendors of social good” for companies to support brand development, cause marketing, employee engagement, wellness, DEI efforts, workforce pipeline development, and so much more. The feedback we have gotten with it has been really positive, with the Charlotte Business Journal, WCNC, WBTV and WBT Radio covering it and many people reaching out to learn more about who we are and why we wrote it.

The sheer number of people spiking our LinkedIn profiles is pretty neat to experience, especially for how varied their backgrounds are. We have seen a fair number of human resources executives, particularly during our recent focus on employee engagement. We have had a number of marketing professionals touch base as well. Perhaps most heartening has been the number of C-Suite and business owners who have somehow seen our content and were intrigued enough to try to find the source.

We sense in their our outreach a lingering question – why? What would cause us to write such an in-depth report on the intersectionality between the private sector and nonprofits?

The motivation behind Profit & Purpose is this – we believe there is this immense, misunderstood and partially hidden opportunity to make significant inroads on the social issues facing our community. Charlotte is growing by leaps and bounds and it is the engine of that growth – companies and jobs – that also presents the greatest opportunity for us to get at sustainable solutions for overcoming challenges of economic opportunity, social mobility, environmental impact and ultimately prosperity for all. It is our dream at Next Stage – a truly sustainable community where everybody wins – and we believe deep down that it is achievable if we work together.

Inspiring, yes? So what role do you have in making it happen?

Yes, This Means You
As a small business owner in the Queen City, I can empathize with the challenges company leaders here have. Just keeping up with the world right now is a full-time job. Gaps in the workforce are making it difficult to meet goals. This has led to an overall slowdown in the supply chain for countless companies and industries. Employees are in a fragile state after more than a year of living through a crisis. Consumers are more aware than ever of their values and how they align with the brands they engage.

Fair or not, companies of all shapes and sizes are learning in real-time that their enterprise is not in a vacuum. Perhaps more than ever, we are all aware of how negative influences impacting society are also influencing the success of our companies. We can’t pretend this away.

And increasingly, these aren’t issues reserved for the largest corporations in town to tackle. Community health is impacting your employee teams. Economic mobility is disrupting your supply chain.

This stuff matters.

And it should matter well beyond the challenges to your bottom line, because we hope you also live here and feel empathy for those who have less access than you have. We hope you care about the environment because you want to leave a more sustainable planet to your children. We hope that underneath the sales figures and quality control assessments, you also feel a moral obligation to support the community that makes it possible for your company to thrive here.

We hope.

But in case that isn’t tugging on your heartstrings, we also have solid evidence that “caring for community” creates positive business outcomes that should get the attention of even the most self-interested among us. At the heart of Profit & Purpose is a win-win-win architecture that allows companies, nonprofits and our community to benefit together.

We can do this. We look forward to continuing the conversation with you.

Now What?
Next Stage knows you have questions and we’re here to help. Through our Social Impact for Business service line, we are working with companies to design compelling social good strategies that lead to impact in employee recruitment, retention and satisfaction. Got a specific challenge you’re wrestling with? Or a compelling workplace asset you want more people to know about? “Yes, we have a nonprofit for that.”

Reach out to us to learn more: info@nextstage-consulting.com

It’s Here! Download the Social Good Report: Profit & Purpose

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For the last year, Next Stage has studied the ways that businesses and nonprofits are intersecting in the Charlotte community. Our team studied a range of business and social good trends, interviewed more than 70 corporate and nonprofit leaders and conducted a study of 350 Charlotte-based Millennial workers. This report outlines the ways that nonprofit and corporate organizations are working together in the Charlotte community to build strong organizations and fuel community impact. You’ll learn how market leaders such as OrthoCarolina, Torrent Consulting and AvidXchange are building social good into their business models – and the ways social good is strengthening their businesses.

Companies have long had a role to play in the social good of a community – but what if social good has a role to play in the health of a business? 

Download the The Social Good Report: Profit & Purpose to learn how social good is strengthening businesses and building impact across our region.

Rewiring Social Good? What Are You Talking About?

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This month, Next Stage embarked on a new initiative – to “rewire social good, building a new bridge between the private sector and nonprofits that creates a win-win-win value proposition.”

Sorry, what?

It is a pretty bold declaration for us but one that requires a little context.

As strategists for social good, the team at Next Stage has been exploring the current conditions of the supportive community for nonprofits for nearly seven years. We’ve come to the conclusion that the future of nonprofits as the drivers of impact in our community is in peril. Big societal shifts are challenging the business models of these organizations. Trends toward digitization, generational approaches to philanthropy and changes to the tax code (to name just a few) are suggesting that a new path forward is needed. Badly.

In truth, we at Next Stage have known this for some time. We have been vocal advocates for new ways of doing things, but our mistake was in “preaching to the choir” – nonprofit leaders have been the primary audience for our messaging. Going forward, that is going to change.

We are repositioning our work, engaging in service delivery with private sector companies alongside the nonprofit organizations that have comprised our client base for years. We believe social good has a role to play inside companies throughout the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region. Bottom-line business needs like employee retention, team development, cause marketing, diversity and inclusion, wellness and workforce development are all areas where nonprofits can be vendors of impact. In fact, we think nonprofits are uniquely capable of being the authentic partners businesses need to stay relevant and competitive.

The key to making this work? A significant mindset shift. Companies see nonprofits as “charities with their hands out,” and nonprofits see companies as “sponsors supporting their cause.” What Next Stage aims to knit together is a new framework for this exchange – one that serves the interests of both sides and ultimately leads to community impact that supports the entire ecosystem. That is the win-win-win value proposition.

We began to explore this topic with our friends Blair Primis from OrthoCarolina and John Searby from the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation last week as a part of What’s Next? – our twice-monthly Friday roundtable. You can catch up with the episode on demand. It is the first of many such conversations as we dedicate What’s Next? to this topic over the next six months.

My colleague Janet Ervin and I have also recently launched a new community study tentatively called The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Social Good Report, our community’s first in-depth examination of the nexus between business needs, employee perceptions and nonprofit capacity. Janet and I aim to interview 50+ business leaders, survey 1,000+ next generation workforce members, and build a network of 20+ nonprofit leaders in an exploration of what is possible when we shift mindsets and build new marketplaces. We have working theories but we’re eager to test these new ideas in practice. We aim to publish our findings in March 2021.

Intrigued? Join us on this journey. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, participate in our What’s Next? digital roundtables, follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn), and let us know what you think about our new direction. We’re all ears.

A Checklist for Corporate Sponsorships during COVID-19

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We’ll say it over and over: few elements of the nonprofit business model are more misunderstood than corporate sponsorship. Unlike grants, sponsorships are built upon a fundamental assumption that there is a return on investment (usually through marketing and public relations or employee engagement and talent retention). Over on the CULTIVATE blog, where we write about best practices for emerging organizations, we shared some tips for building “win-win” corporate partnerships back in January – combining social impact for the nonprofit with marketing, public relations and employee engagement returns for the company.

Just five months have passed since we posted that article, but it feels like years. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted the landscape for nonprofits: in-person programs have been postponed or altered to align with social distancing guidelines, spring fundraising events have gone virtual or been cancelled, and employees are carefully operating on the front lines or working from home. These changes have impacted how nonprofits can “fulfill” their existing corporate sponsorships, too, and many are now left without their usual case for support.

On Friday, May 15, Next Stage hosted a roundtable discussion about creative approaches to corporate sponsorship fulfillment on The New Normal. More than 150 nonprofit and corporate social responsibility leaders joined us to hear from panelists Dominique Johnson, Community Affairs Manager at Duke Energy, Natalie Brown, Director of Corporate Citizenship at Ally Financial, and Blair Primis, Senior VP of Marketing & Talent at OrthoCarolina. If you weren’t able to join us last week and want to hear from our panelists, you can find a full recording of the roundtable here.

The conversation was full of nuggets of wisdom – the kind of insight into cross-sector partnership development and communication that you can only accumulate by spending years with a foot in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. We’ve highlighted some of the big takeaways on Twitter, but be sure to read through our Corporate Sponsorships and COVID-19 Checklist for more guidance below.

Corporate Sponsorships and COVID-19: A Checklist for Moving Forward

Existing Sponsorships

  • Reach out to your sponsors to update them on what COVID-19 means for your organization. What has changed, and how will it impact your ability to fulfill sponsorship expectations (e.g. program cancellations, virtual events, employee engagement or volunteer opportunities)?
  • Get creative! If an event has been cancelled, suggest alternative projects or opportunities that provide a similar benefit to the company. A co-branded blog series highlighting the increased need your organization is working to meet during the pandemic, or a virtual event meant to engage the company’s employees in your mission, are just a couple of ideas to get you started.
  • Honesty is the best policy. If need outweighs capacity to create a new strategy to fulfill the sponsorship expectations, share that. Many sponsors are loosening restrictions on sponsorships and some are even increasing their financial commitments due to growing need right now.
  • Don’t overpromise. And try to execute quickly on your new pathway forward. Corporate sponsors understand that this is an unprecedented time – but they want you to be successful. Use this as an opportunity to strengthen relationships and build trust between your organization and theirs.

New Sponsorships

  • Consider building new partnerships around marketing benefits. Digital communications are an increasingly important aspect of nonprofit sustainability for all organizations. Find prospective partners relevant to your mission and pitch them on creative brand alignment strategies.
  • Don’t underestimate the value of virtual events. Nonprofits are pulling off virtual fundraisers and events that engage more people than they could reach in a single in-person gala.
  • Integrate digital communications and virtual events into your sponsorship strategy not just during this crisis, but as an ongoing area of growth. The most successful organizations will use this time to build new muscles in marketing and online communications, ultimately growing their brand’s reach in the community and their ability to secure larger sponsorships.
  • Transparency and relationship development are key. Don’t make blind pitches to companies with a menu of sponsorship levels. They have likely realized some revenue shortfalls and operations challenges during this crisis, too. Approach new sponsorship asks as an opportunity to co-create strategies that are true win-win partnerships, solving core business challenges and providing benefit to all at the table.

Let us know how you’ve stayed in touch with your corporate sponsors during COVID-19 and if you are thinking differently about how to build future partnerships through social media using #NewNormalCLT.